Ana

CH 7

He looked frantically around at the crowds of people along the narrow street and felt himself start to panic. A lot of people were going to die when that went off if he didn't do something fast. With this many tourists shopping, there had to be some cops in the area. He climbed up on a step for a better look and spotted two police officers down the street. With a jump, he was sprinting toward them waving his arms to get their attention but when he approached them, one of the police placed his hand on the butt of his gun and motioned for him to stop.

 "I ... need ... help," Tom said trying to catch his breath in between words.

 "What's the problem?" the officer asked.

 He was sweating profusely now but had recovered enough to say, "I saw a bomb in that van down there."  He pointed toward the van down the street.

 "Say again?" the officer said leaning closer to Tom.

 "There's a bomb in that white van. You can see it if you look in from the front but you need to hurry because it's going to explode soon and you better get all these people out of here quick.

 The officer looked at him suspiciously. "Ok, calm down, we'll have a look."  He spoke quickly to his partner in a language Tom didn't understand then lead the way toward the van. Tom followed but stopped a good fifty feet short as they started searching cautiously around the van. The officers had a brief but serious discussion after looking in from the front like Tom had done then the one Tom had spoken too got on his radio while the other started blowing a whistle and yelling at people to clear out of the area.

 A passerby that had been listening to the officers started yelling, "Bomba — bomba - takbo bilis!"  The scene quickly became chaos with people pushing each other to get clear of the area. Tom decided he had done all that he could so it was time to get the hell out of here. He started backing away from the van while the police were ignoring him and pushed his way through the confused crowd in the direction of where he had gotten off the bus. With luck the police wouldn't notice he was leaving because he had no desire to be held for questioning under these circumstances.

 Finally, after walking as fast as he thought he could without drawing attention to himself, he reached the bus stop without hearing an explosion. Maybe Ana was wrong about how much time they had before it went off, although, he did hear what sounded like a gun shot at one point as well as several sirens. Tom waited nervously for the next ride up the mountain as minutes felt like hours. The distant sound of an explosion he expected didn't materialize by the time the jeepney appeared heading his way. Once it stopped Tom wasted no time handing the driver a five dollar bill and jumping onboard the empty van. Only after they began the climb up the mountain was Tom able to take a deep breath and relax.

 ***

 Heidi pulled her shoulder length hair back into a ponytail in an attempt to stay cool. It was just her luck that the air conditioner in her dad's office was broken during her trip here. Her dad had been stationed in this small field office in the Philippines for several years now keeping tabs on extremist rebels located in the jungles of this province. She tried to open the window more but it was stuck half way up. Well, she would only be here a week then she would be heading back to the States. She smiled and picked up an old picture from the shelf next to the window. It was a graduation picture of her and her parents. Her mom had never liked the fact that she had followed in her dad's footsteps by signing up with the Central Intelligence Agency after graduating from college. She missed her mom so much. She glanced over at her father as he worked to complete a rush report before he would take a break to chat with her. Burying himself in his work was his way of dealing with her mother's death and Heidi knew she was doing much the same as she continued to chase the unknown around the globe.